Organized to Death Read Free

Crystal called me several days ago and asked me to help her sister organize her house. Said Rachel had agreed. We’ve all known each other since grammar school. Crystal and I graduated together. Rachel was a year behind us.”
    John was taking notes. Lisbeth took a sip of coffee. “Go on.”
    “This was my first job as a professional organizer, and—”
    “What did you do before?”
    “I was a clinical psychologist.”
    Both officers sat in complete silence for a few moments, staring at her. She knew they were wondering why she’d given that up. None of their business.
    “I imagine you were shocked when Rachel opened the door,” Lisbeth finally said.
    “Yes, a bit. Crystal didn’t really describe the clutter to me, and I had no idea it was that bad. She probably figured if I knew, I wouldn’t take the job.”
    “Probably,” Lisbeth said.
    “I could see the living room and dining room as I entered. We went down the hall to the kitchen, then to the master bedroom. Half of which was neat, the other half not. Rachel explained that Nicky was the neat one.”
    “Pretty daunting,” Lisbeth said.
    “Yes. Rach even asked me if I wanted to back out. Of course I told her I’d help. I went outside to get some boxes and supplies and met Crystal coming down the walk from her house next door.”
    “So she was alive this morning.”
    “Oh, yes. Very much so. Determined to help me and Rachel clean up that, as she put it, godawful mess. Then Mrs. Morris, their mother, showed up. She was going to help, too.”
    “How did you handle that?” Lisbeth asked.
    “I tried to persuade them to leave, but they wouldn’t. We all went inside, and Rachel protested, but it didn’t do any good.”
    Tina stopped talking and took a sip of coffee. It was cold and she made a face, pushed it aside. She looked away from the two officers, remembering.
    “I began by telling Rachel the best way to clean up clutter using boxes and a trash bag. I went slow, easing her into the idea, telling her that she only had to get rid of what she didn’t need or really love. I told her she could put things she wasn’t sure about in a box to look at later. The idea was to get rid of what she knew she didn’t need or want, and to only keep, well, as I said, what she needed and loved.”
    John stirred in his seat and shrugged his shoulders several times as if to loosen them.
    Lisbeth didn’t even glance at him. “Then what happened?”
    “The other two got impatient. They began telling Rachel to just get on with it, it wasn’t hard, and she needed to toss most of it because it was junk. You can imagine how that made her feel.”
    “Tell us,” Lisbeth said.
    Tina hesitated. “She asked us to leave.”
    “Asked or demanded?”
    “More demanded, but she seemed more depressed than angry.”
    “Then what happened?”
    “We left. But I saw Crystal later at the Ocean’s Coffee Roasters—I’m sure you’ve been there? On Memorial Boulevard?”
    Lisbeth smiled, but John just stared at her. What a pill . He should take one and chill .
    “I was having a Bravo Blend when Crystal and her husband, Charles, walked in.”
    “What did she say?”
    “She actually said I’d been right, that she and her mother shouldn’t have interfered. Both Charles and I were pretty amazed.”
    “Charles is the real estate attorney with offices on Broadway?” Lisbeth asked.
    “Yes. We hoped Rachel would call me back. A while later she did, and I returned to help her. We worked in the bedroom for almost two hours, then we needed to find a place to put the boxes out of the way. The ones for charity would go directly into her trunk, but the ones to keep and to store needed to be somewhere in the house or garage. Rachel suggested the nursery, although she didn’t tell me the room was a nursery. Even the garage, attic, and cellar are crammed full, she said. She showed me the other rooms, then we went to the one… to the nursery.”
    “What did Mrs. Palmer do when she saw